


Open Your Eyes With Me, See Paradise With Me

by Memories_of_the_Shadows



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Cotton Candy Fluff, Cute, Developing Relationship, F/M, Fluff, POV Outsider, Romantic Fluff, Sweet, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Wedding Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-21 12:11:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16576220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Memories_of_the_Shadows/pseuds/Memories_of_the_Shadows
Summary: When Hagrid retires from Care of Magical Creatures, Neville starts growing radishes in his garden.





	Open Your Eyes With Me, See Paradise With Me

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from "The Sky, and the Dawn, and the Sun" by Celtic Woman.

When Hagrid retires from Care of Magical Creatures, Neville starts growing radishes in his garden. They are utterly normal radishes, save for where they are grown, and many wonder why the very popular Herbology professor would bother. No one thinks a thing about the timing.

Headmistress McGonagall--old, but far from tired--replaces him with a still wide-eyed, still blonde, still slight Luna Lovegood who also still marvels at the world like she’s seeing it for the first time, and she soon enough teaches her students to do the same; far more popular as a teacher then a student.

(And for the first time in probably over a century, Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures are two of the most popular subjects. And professors.)

A scant year after Luna begins teaching, a plum tree shows up near the greenhouses, and the students all whisper amongst themselves that the plums seem to float rather than be pulled down by gravity.

Some of the sixth and seventh year Herbology students that get tasked with the upkeep of the vegetable garden say that Professor Longbottom asks that they bring him the prettiest ones--which baffles most of them, and the others argue about what they think makes a radish look pretty, but a war hero is allowed his quirks--yet no matter how “beautiful” the radish is that they present, he always, _always_ , sighs and waves them to the kitchens and waiting, greedy hands of the house elves. At least they always appreciate the fresh ingredients.

Professor Lovegood, on the other hand, had established a mooncalf population after long, serious negotiations with the denizens of the Forbidden Forest, and she had her own NEWT students searching for their dung to deliver to the greenhouses and the gardens, to the COMC students’ great disgust.

(Though, those who had the gall to complain about this assignment to their classmates were quickly given what-for by those in Potions and Herbology; with the Herbology students strutting proudly around the halls, and the Potions students stewing in bitter jealousy at the lost opportunity. None more so than the Potions Professor, of course, who almost started a fight with his fellows over it.)

All the school gossips titter in confusion and delight when Professor Longbottom greets this news with a fierce blush and a stuttered thanks.

They titter even more when the radishes are _finally_ “pretty” enough to suit the Herbology professor and Gryffindor Head of House. Though, somehow, no one but the Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures NEWT students make the connection between this event and Professor Lovegood’s new earrings. (The Herbology students, at least, were ecstatic not to have to guess what made a radish pretty anymore, and all of them wished their bonkers professors luck.)

Seemingly overnight after her new earrings make an appearance, the greenhouses gain beautiful glass bulbs in a rainbow of colors--though Gryffindor red and gold features prominently--that are said to attract helpful bugs and other things that naturally reduce pests and parasites. The charms students said that they made the easily overwhelmed charms professor weep for an hour and all those students make excuses to visit the greenhouses for a chance to study them in envy.

It takes a long time, from the point of view of the students, a couple generations of NEWT students come and go, but eventually Professors Lovegood and Longbottom are rarely seen apart, and soft blushes and muttered asides turn into idle touches and softer smiles. Nothing inappropriate, nothing all that strange or wild, but it is not a shock to the more astute gossips of Hogwarts when their engagement shows up on the backend of the society pages.

The ceremony is small and beautiful--a June wedding--held under the plum tree that most definitely defies the laws of gravity by now, and is graced with a visit from a curious juvenile unicorn, several other sentient denizens of the Forest, and too many old war heroes for even the most obsessively studious Ravenclaw to ignore.

Professor Lovegood smiles her way through end of term exams, Professor Longbottom blushes, and both return from summer vacation with gleaming gold rings on their fingers.

The newest generation of gossips crane their necks and strain their eyes trying to catch a glimpse of the rings, and the newest Herbology and Care students roll their eyes and keep what little they see and hear a secret.

Professor Longbottom does not change his name. Neither does Professor Lovegood. Nothing changes, in fact, other than the rings, and soon enough the gossips drift to more interesting topics.

And throughout the years, the radishes grow in the garden, the plums defy gravity by the greenhouse, the mooncalves frolic in the forests, and the glass orbs sparkle in the filtered sun; fixtures now, and reminders that only two people in the world know the true meanings of.

**Author's Note:**

> So I realized as I was typing this up that Luna is really the one that is pursuing Neville and god just everything about this fic makes me so happy, I love it so much, and I almost cannot believe I wrote it. I hope everyone else likes this, especially since I sat on this fic for months just reading the hand-written original so much that I actually smeared the pencil.
> 
> If you'd like to see more of what I'm into, come visit me at my [tumblr](https://sachinighte.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
